Here’s a guilty pleasure for you: I really enjoy Oscar Day. I used to like it even more during the pre-1999 period, when the ceremony was held on a Monday. It was essentially a holiday in Los Angeles and always made me thankful for being exposed to the many great films that shaped my future sensibilities while growing up in Brooklyn.
During that time, the single-plex – in my experience, a decaying neighborhood theater – was the only place to see a movie. Many of them held upward of a thousand people, though they rarely saw as many patrons over several months. That was fine by me. Being a cinematographer was the furthest thing from my mind, so I just enjoyed the show. But at the same time, an interesting thing was taking place. By simply spending as much time as I did in those drafty, cavernous spaces, I was absorbing lessons whose benefits continue to reveal themselves every day.
And what a slate of venues I had to choose from! Below, are the ones that were located a short walk or bicycle ride from my adolescent home. Extending that range by taking a bus or the subway grew the number exponentially. Apart from a ballfield or gymnasium, there was nowhere else I would rather have been at that time. They’re all gone now but will always hold a warm place in my heart…especially on Oscar Day.
The Mayfair
The Avenue U
The Kingsway
The Avalon
The Oceana
The Brook
The Marine
The Sheepshead
The Nostrand
The Graham
The Kent
The Rialto
The Kenmore
The Albemarle
The Kings
The Oriental
Leave a comment if this odd sentiment resonates with you. Be sure to mention the names of your favorite theaters and the city in which they were located.
And a hearty CONGRATULATIONS to James Friend, ASC, BSC on his Best Cinematography Oscar win for All Quiet On the Western Front..!
Yes, Great memories.
I love this post Richard. Brooklyn in the house! As a 25+ year Brooklyn newbie I have enjoyed many feature presentations at Cobble Hill Cinemas. This little gem was showing films in 1926 as the Lido Theater. It’s on Court Street at the corner of Butler. It’s a great little theater. It has a classy deco vibe while still being a true neighborhood theater.
Congratulations to James Friend, ASC, BSC and to each of the nominees!
I have a beloved theater, simply called “Cinema Theater” or “Theater Cinema”. It was in Induno Olona, a small county near Arcisate, another, smaller county where I was living. Both counties were part of the city of Varese, slightly more known, located on the Italian Prealps (the mountains before the Alps). As a matter of fact, it’s the theater that made me fall in love with movies and even if working on a film set was just a distant dream at that time, it was the weekly experience I was looking forward to. My father used to take me to the movies instead of soccer games and I thank him for that because I could watch movies for 25 hours a day, but I could not watch any sport game for more than 25 seconds. The theater was a tiny place, initially filled with wooden chairs and a white wall over which movies were projected, about three months after they were out in the main cinemas of the city. With 1.000 liras (about 50 cents) you would get a ticket for the movie, a can of Pepsi and a bag of chips or popcorns. The theater is now closed, but the last time tickets were sold for 4 euros (about the same in dollars). In that theater I saw the first two movies that made a huge impact on me and sparked the love for filmmaking and storytelling: “Robocop” and “The Witches”. When I started working in the film industry, one of my dreams became being able to buy that theater and restore it; it meant and still means so much for me.
Completely resonates with me! I miss “OSCAR Monday!” It was like an industry holiday… Everyone was making it short work days because they wanted to get home to watch, or even get changed into their Tux and make their way to the awards.
As for theaters…
The Big ‘A’ Amityville Theater
Lindenhurst Theatre
The Syosset – Where I saw “Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm” and “How the West Was Won” in actual Cinerama.
Not a long list… but Amityville was a small town!
Then there was the Creve Coeur Cinema in St. Louis where I saw STAR WARS 25+ times in the first two months of release. That was when I realized, in spite of my father’s opinions and concerns to the contrary, I needed to move to LA to try my luck in the film business.
I grew up in a small town with one movie theater, but later moved to Virginia near D.C. and could go into town and see movies in the big theaters like the Uptown. When I got to UCLA in 1982, there were a number of movie palaces still around, some now gone like the Picwood and the Mann Westwood. I also remember the Plitt Century Plaza where I saw 70mm prints of “2001” and “Lawrence of Arabia” and first met Vilmos Zsigmond, when I found myself sitting next to him during a screening of “Passage to India”. I gushed about how much “Close Encounters” meant to me and when his wife sat down, he turned to her and said “This guy REALLY likes my movies!”